Health Sleuths Try To Unravel Belle Glade's Aids Mystery

A team of state and federal health investigators began combing medical records Monday in Belle Glade, trying to find out why the South Florida farming town has the world's highest rate of AIDS.

In the community of 15,000 near the southern shore of Lake Okeechobee, 37 residents have been diagnosed as having acquired immune deficiency syndrome. More than half of them have died from the epidemic disease that wipes out the body's immune system and leaves it prey to a host of infections.

''I think we have a major problem there,'' said Dr. John Witte of the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services. ''We've got three people there this week doing a very detailed, disciplined investigation. They will stay several days getting basic information.''

Next week, a larger team of investigators from the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta will descend on Belle Glade to study the cases, Witte said Monday at a meeting of county health officials in Orlando.

''They're going to see if they can trace the sexual contacts of these people to see if they can show a chain of cases that had sexual relations with each other.

''The problem in doing that well is that so many people have died. You have to find out second-hand who people have had sex with, and that's not always a valid way of getting histories,'' Witte said.

The plight of Belle Glade's AIDS victims, most of whom live or lived in squalor on the poorest side of town, was reported at an international conference on AIDS last month by Dr. Carolyn MacLeod, director of the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Miami.

The town bordered by sugar cane fields has an AIDS rate of 1 in 600 people and ''that's the highest rate in the world, higher than New York, San Francisco, Miami or Los Angeles,'' said MacLeod, who also works with the Palm Beach County Health Department.

Half of Belle Glade's AIDS victims do not fit the population groups considered at risk for the deadly disease. The only common denominator among them is squalid living conditions and, as with malaria or St. Louis encephalitis, mosquitoes could be spreading the disease, she said.

Witte said the health investigators are not ''out to prove or disprove any single theory,'' but he said he ''would be very surprised if we find any significant transmission of cases other than by close personal contact.''

The number of people in this country stricken by AIDS topped 10,000 last week, including 701 Floridians, according to the CDC. No one has recovered from the disease and most die within two years of diagnosis.

AIDS is believed to be spread by blood or body fluids, not by casual contact. Most of its victims are homosexual men believed to spread the disease by anal intercourse. It is not known whether condoms can reduce the risk of

spreading the virus, but they are recommended by some doctors.

Intravenous drug abusers who share dirty needles are the second-largest group of victims. The third risk group involves users of blood products, hemophiliacs or recipients of blood transfusions.

Blood banks last month started using a new blood test that identifies antibodies produced to fight the AIDS virus. It is expected to help ensure the safety of the nation's blood supply.

About 1 percent of blood donors are expected to test positive. No one knows how many of those who test positive will develop the disease, but some studies place the number between 5 percent and 20 percent.

The test is available only at blood banks but Florida plans to begin offering it at 16 county health departments, including Orange, starting June 3.

The state is scheduled to start a toll-free telephone number Monday that will help inform the public about AIDS, said Marilyn Maud of HRS. The phone number has not been assigned.